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Further thoughts on Bloom Box

February 22, 2010 | by Jeane

The Bloom Box inventor from India is closer to the reality of how most people in the world live, therefore he isn’t just focused on becoming wealthy. He intends to power villages with cheaper, clean electricity.

Discussing the now-famous Bloom Box today with technies, I heard various views. One pointed out that it may produce electricity but how much “work” can it do? Will it power ships, trains, airplanes?

“In space it would be useless… Fuel cells need fuel no matter what the chemistry is.” He added that when air pollution gets into a fuel cell’s oxygen supply; it destroys the cells. And the gases it uses have to be very pure. Add their cost to the initial $3-4,000 + start up cost and you come up with an average annual cost including depreciation of the unit of about $2,500/year over 30 year life of the system.
Another friend optimistically expects that if independent power units get widespread use, then Siemens and General Electric will bring out the technologies from patents that those corporations have been sitting on. Not the most revolutionary ones, but those that are at least better that a Bloom Box.

The Chinese however probably won’t hold back their best shot at transformative energy technology, because they don’t have any oil monopoly.

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